Year 1492
100,000 Jews evacuated from the Sicily region of Italy.
DECEMBER 31
Daily Historical Chronicle
UPSC CSE • State PSC • SSC CGL Matrix
31 December: What Happened On This Day in History
Curated historical timeline of momentous political pacts, freedom struggle uprisings, constitutional developments, scientific breakthroughs, and prominent birthdays recorded on 31 December.
Year 1781
The first bank of America ‘Bank of North America’ opened.
Year 1600
Establishment of the British East India Company.
Year 1802
A treaty of Vasai signed between the British and the second Bajirao Peshwa.
Year 1879
Thomas Edison demonstrated the first electric lamp in Menlo Park, New Jersey.
Year 1929
Purna Swaraj (Complete Independence) announced at the Lahore session of the Congress.
Year 1944
In World War II, Hungary declared war on Germany.
Year 1955
General Motors became the first US Company to earn 1 billion a year.
Year 1964
Indonesia was expelled from the United Nations.
Year 1984
Rajiv Gandhi became the Prime Minister of India and Congress President for the first time.
Year 1985
United Kingdom became a member of UNESCO.
Year 1999
Indian Airlines Flight 814 hijacking ended after seven days with the release of 190 survivors at Kandhar Airport, Afghanistan.
Year 2003
Foreign secretaries of India and other SAARC countries began talks before the summit.
Year 2019
The World Health Organization was informed of cases of pneumonia with an unknown cause, detected in Wuhan. This later turned out to be COVID – 19, the cause of the COVID -19 pandemic.
Born 1869
Henri Émile Benoît Matisse, a French artist.
Born 1898
Krishna Ballabh Sahay, an Indian freedom fighter, and politician.
Born 1910
Mallikarjun Mansur, an Indian classical singer from Karnataka.
Born 1912
John Frost, Indian-English general (d. 1993)
Born 1925
Shrilal Shukla, a Hindi writer, notable for his satire.
Born 1934
Ameer Muhammad Akram Awan, an Islamic scholar and spiritual leader of the Naqshbandi Owaisiah order of Sufism.
Born 1937
Anthony Hopkins, a Welsh actor, composer, director, and film producer.
Born 1956
Prabhu, an Indian film actor, businessman, and film producer.
Born 1965
Laxman Sivaramakrishnan, Indian cricketer
Born 1977
Psy, a South Korean singer, rapper, songwriter, and record producer.
Died 1953
Albert Plesman, a Dutch pioneer in aviation and the first administrator and later director of the KLM.
Died 1956
Ravishankar Shukla, a leader of the Indian National Congress, and Indian independence movement activist.
Died 1986
Raj Narain, an Indian freedom fighter and politician.
Died 1993
Zviad Gamsakhurdia, a Georgian politician, and the first democratically elected President of Georgia.
Died 2001
Harshad Mehta, an Indian stockbroker.
Died 2018
Kader Khan, Indian actor (b. 1937)